ARLINGTON, Texas – Baylor baseball dropped a 4-3 ballgame to Oklahoma State in the opening round of the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on Wednesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
 
The 10^th-seeded Bears led 3-1 into the sixth inning, but a pair of late errors allowed the No. 7-seed OSU to come from behind and eliminate BU from this year's conference tournament.
 
Junior left-handed pitcher Ethan Calder gave the Bears five solid innings on the mound, allowing just one run on two hits with five strikeouts. Sixth-year senior closer Gabe Craig turned in 1.2 scoreless innings and punched out four.
 
Redshirt senior designated hitter Hunter Simmons had two hits and redshirt senior outfielder Enzo Apodaca scored two runs for Baylor offensively.
 
THE RUNDOWN
After the Bears went down in order in the top of the first, Calder worked a 1-2-3 frame in the home half. Nothing came for BU in the second on Simmons' two-out double.
 
OSU opened the scoring in the bottom of the second with a two-out solo home run, but Baylor answered right back in the top of the third to take a 2-1 lead. Senior catcher Cortlan Castle walked to lead off the inning, then wheeled around from first to score on a Cowboys throwing error. Meanwhile, Apodaca advanced up to third on the error and later scored on senior infielder Tyriq Kemp's RBI groundout.
 
Calder continued to be sharp early on, ending the third with back-to-back strikeouts. In the fourth, he worked out of danger to strand two baserunners, getting consecutive flyouts after allowing a one-out double and a walk.
 
In the top of the fifth, Kemp came through again with an RBI sacrifice fly to push the BU advantage to 3-1. Calder recorded his fifth strikeout in the bottom half of the inning, working yet another 1-2-3 frame to cap off his day.
 
The Cowboys tied things up in the bottom of the sixth as back-to-back singles started the inning. After both runners tagged up on a deep flyout, a sacrifice fly brought the Pokes within a run. With two away, a Baylor throwing error allowed the tying run to score and the two sides entered the final three innings all square at 3-3.
 
With two runners on and one out in the seventh, BU called on Craig to get out of trouble. After a strikeout of the first batter he faced, a two-out fielding error allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate and OSU took a 4-3 lead.
 
From there, the Pokes retired six of the final seven Bears that came to bat, as Baylor was unable to make use of a single by Simmons in the eighth to spark a late rally.
 
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor pitchers struck out 10+ batters for the 16^th time this season.
• BU only allowed two walks, marking the 28^th time this season that BU has walked two or less.
• Redshirt senior OF Enzo Apodaca extended his on-base streak to 22 games.
• Redshirt sophomore INF Travis Sanders extended his on-base streak to five games.
• Senior INF Tyriq Kemp logged his 11^th multi-RBI game of the season.
• Senior OF Wesley Jordan extended his on-base streak to 11 games.
• Redshirt senior DH Hunter Simmons tallied his 18^th multi-hit game of the year.
• Senior OF Ty Johnson extended his on-base streak to five games.
• Junior LHP Ethan Calder worked his seventh start of the season of at least five innings with three earned runs allowed or fewer (5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO).
• Sixth-year senior RHP Gabe Craig made his 22^nd scoreless appearance of the season, 14^th hitless and 16^th multi-strikeout outing of 2025.
 
STAT OF THE DAY
22 – Sixth-year senior RHP Gabe Craig made his 22^nd scoreless appearance of the season, throwing 1.2 innings with four strikeouts.
 
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Mitch Thompson
On today's ballgame…
"I think our guys competed their tails off. I thought they played real hard and played to win. I'm proud of them. Proud of the effort they gave. I thought we were going to overcome a few things at the end, but didn't seem to be able to do it. But, I thought our guys did a heck of a job and I'm proud of them for the year, proud of them for today, for the game, and proud of how they go about their business."
 
Sixth-Year Senior RHP Gabe Craig
On today's loss…
"It's baseball. Not everything is going to go your way. I was happy to be out there and try to give us a chance to stay in the game. I thought all my teammates competed extremely well all season and today included. It's fun to be out there pitching with those guys behind me. Just the relationships that we've built, being able to be out there for those last couple innings meant a lot to me. It's really frustrating that we came up short, but that's the game of baseball. It's going to be like that. I was happy to be out there and glad I could finish off the season with those guys."
 
Senior C Cortlan Castle
On the start to the game…
"Starting off the game, there was a lot of energy and all of our guys were excited. This was a big moment for us knowing our season was on the line. We brought a lot of energy, got those two runs across which was huge, but the second guy they brought in was tough to hit against. Thought we competed well against him, but he's a good pitcher."
 
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